


A Clone and Two Captains

by redlipstickblackdress



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, Attempt at Humor, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Romance, Slapstick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-21 07:19:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 12,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/897466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redlipstickblackdress/pseuds/redlipstickblackdress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The TARDIS gets lost and picks up a young woman named Alice.  Rory is kidnapped and cloned by an alien race that wants to inhabit bodies and find a better supply of food.  Rory's clone develops an attachment to Alice.  The TARDIS is hijacked by a female space pirate, and along the adventure they meet Captain Jack Harkness, who the female pirate captain is determined not to like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Which Alice Unexpectedly Ends Up On an Adventure

**Author's Note:**

> My attempt at a Doctor Who story. I adore Rory and wanted to write a budding romance, but I couldn't very well split up the Ponds. My solution was to clone Rory. I hope someone likes it - it's kind of a weird story, but then Doctor Who is kind of a weird show. :)

Alice opened her eyes slowly, awakened by a strangely beautiful scratchy metallic sound. She turned the lamp on by her bedside didn’t see anything at first. Suddenly, wind began blowing through her hair, although her window was closed. A moment later, a large, ghostly blue form began to appear. Was she dreaming? Hallucinating? She rubbed her eyes, but the blue shape became more and more solid, as if materializing before her (which, in fact, is exactly what it was doing). A moment later, it was before her, clear as day: a beautiful blue police box. 

As Alice was about to hop out of her warm, comfy bed to examine the object, still unsure if she was dreaming or hallucinating, the door to the police box opened and a head popped out. He looked young, attractive, and had brown hair that managed to be neat and be flopping wildly into his face at the same time. He was wearing a tweed jacket and a bow tie. 

“Who are you?” Alice demanded as the stranger stepped out of the box. “What are you doing in my bedroom?” 

“Is this your bedroom?” he asked in an English accent, looking around. 

“Yes! Why else would I be in this room in this bed in the middle of the night?” The man ignored her, looking around her room distractedly, occasionally picking things up and examining them. Could this guy be more ADD? Suddenly, he jumped on her bed on all fours, his face a few inches from hers. 

“Where are we?” 

“Seattle,” Alice answered, leaning away from the crazy person. 

“What year is it?” 

“2101.” This guy was definitely insane. 

“Did you get us lost again?” A Scottish female voice asked as if this sort of thing happened all the time. Alice looked past the crazy man on her bed and saw a pretty redhead standing in the doorway of the blue box, leaned against the door. 

“Who are you? How many people are in that thing?” Alice demanded. 

“What’s going on? Are we lost?” These questions came from yet a third voice. It was followed by its owner – a cute, thin, slightly awkward-looking man with a mess of short hair that was somewhere between dark blond and brown. He had on a puffy vest over a plaid shirt and of the three, looked the most like a normal, sane person. Alice looked at the trio in disbelief. 

“You should really learn to drive that thing,” the redhead said sarcastically to the man in the bow tie. She was clearly the sassy one. 

“What’s the fun in that?” he replied with an affectionate smile. 

The two began bantering about the brown-haired man’s clearly inadequate navigational skills while the one in the vest occasionally opened his mouth to contribute, but was unable to get a word in edgewise. 

“EXCUSE ME,” Alice finally shouted. All three of them stopped talking and turned to look at her, the redhead and the guy in the vest noticing her for the first time. “Will one of you, and only one, explain to me who you are and why you are in my bedroom?” 

The redhead and the man with the bow tie began talking at once, and Alice could only hear a word here and there: Doctor, TARDIS, time travel. It didn’t make any sense. The other guy just stood looking slightly embarrassed by his friends. 

“Hey! I said one of you!” Alice yelled over them. “You,” she pointed to the guy in the puffy vest, since he seemed to be the most normal of the three. “Explain.”   
He uncomfortably stepped forward. The redhead folded her arms and looked almost personally offended that she couldn’t talk. The guy man took a moment to look at his friends, trying to figure out how best to explain the bizarre situation. 

“Hello,” he said. “I’m Rory. This is my wife Amy, and our friend, The Doctor. He’s an alien. This is the TARDIS,” he pointed toward the blue police box. “It travels in time and space. We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up here in your bedroom.” 

Well, so much for him being the normal one. Alice blinked at him for a moment, processing what he’d just said, then realized he was serious. In fact, all three of them looked serious. Could three people be having the same delusion simultaneously? She’d never heard of such a thing, but she couldn’t say for sure whether it was possible. 

During this explanation, the one called The Doctor had pulled out a small cylindrical object with a green light on the end of it and began poking around her room again, sometimes picking something up and pointing the device at it. The gizmo made a whirring sound, but Alice didn’t know what that meant. Alice was now distracted when she saw The Doctor pick up a music box from her childhood and lick it. 

“Hey! What are you doing to my stuff?” He didn’t answer, just continued to pick up various items and examine them. “Can I see in there?” Alice asked, crawling out of bed and walking toward the TARDIS. It looked like an ordinary police box, not that police boxes were ordinary in 22nd century America. Amy moved aside to let Alice into the box, the door of which was still open. A minute later, she came out and looked at The Doctor. 

“It’s bigger on the inside.” 

He smiled as if he had heard it before, but never tired of hearing it. 

“Hello! I’m The Doctor,” he told Alice. She looked at Amy quizzically, and Amy looked back at her as if to say, ‘yes, he’s always like this.’ 

“Why is it bigger on the inside?” Alice said, starting to panic that she, too, was going insane.

“Time Lord technology,” The Doctor said casually, as if this were an adequate explanation. 

“What Lord?” 

The Doctor didn’t answer, but suddenly jerked his head around and got a very serious look on his face. Amy noticed it as if she recognized the look, and Rory looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. The Doctor pulled out his whirring green light again, waving it around the room, looking very intense. 

“What is that thing anyway?” Alice asked. 

“Sonic screwdriver,” Amy answered, knowing The Doctor wouldn’t answer. Alice had no idea what a sonic screwdriver was, but then again, it fit in with everything else that didn’t make sense. 

“We need to get out of here,” The Doctor finally said. 

“Why?” Amy asked. 

“Go!” The Doctor ran into the TARDIS, Amy running after him. “You too!” he added, extending an arm out of the TARDIS door toward Alice. 

“I’m not going with you, I don’t know you!” Alice shouted. 

Suddenly the door to her bedroom burst open and a smoke-like fog crept in. It wiggled around the room, stopping a few inches from Alice’s face. It started to surround her – it felt surprisingly solid for a fog – when her arm was grabbed and she was pulled inside the TARDIS by The Doctor. 

“Rory, get in!” The Doctor said, but the fog had already moved on to him, and was wrapped around him and lifting him up into the air. Alice’s bedroom window opened as if by itself, and Rory went flying out of it, surrounded by the fog as if it were a giant hand wrapped around him, taking him away. “No!” The Doctor shouted, but Rory and the fog were out of sight. Amy looked horrified. She turned to The Doctor. 

“What are you waiting for?! We have to save him!” 

Alice watched as The Doctor closed the TARDIS door and ran to the center of the large room, presumably the control panel. He began frantically flipping switches, turning knobs, pressing buttons, and Alice was slightly concerned about whether he knew what he was doing. Amy held on tightly to a staircase, leading Alice to believe that she should do the same. The lights in the interior of the TARDIS began to flash and the same sound that had signaled the arrival of the TARDIS in her started again. 

Alice was glad that she lived alone and was unemployed and unattached at that moment – she had a feeling she would be gone for a while and that she was about to go on an interesting adventure.


	2. In Which There is One More Rory and One More Captain Than Needed

When they stopped, Alice had no idea where they were. She had fortunately gotten to change out of her pajamas, since Amy’d had her wits about her enough to bring Alice into the TARDIS closet (how many rooms did the thing have, anyway?) and get her some clothes. She’d found a pair of gray tights and a purple sweater dress, figuring that would be comfortable enough for whatever they were about to do. Amy went to the door and opened it, stepping outside. Alice, not knowing what else to do, followed her. They were inside a giant building with not much inside to indicate what it was. A warehouse? A laboratory? It was dark and the floor and walls were made of concrete. The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around, waving around his sonic screwdriver. 

“Doctor? Where are we?” Amy asked as she looked around, alert to anything that might happen. 

“If we can only find…ah!” They had reached a metal door, which seemed to be magically unlocked by the sonic screwdriver. The door swung open with a slow creak and they wandered down another dim, empty hallway that looked similar to the last one. The building seemed like a maze of similar hallways, and Alice didn’t really know what they were looking for. The Doctor was leading the way, but he didn’t seem to actually know where he was going. The Doctor opened one of the many doors along the hallway and there was a loud growl and several purple tentacles came out of the door. 

“Oh, terribly sorry, miss!” The Doctor said, closing the door frantically. “Wrong door,” he said, as if it weren’t obvious to everyone already. The group turned a corner and The Doctor opened another door. It led to another hallway, and standing in the hall was Rory, completely naked. Alice blushed and turned her face away respectfully, although she had to admit she found him attractive. 

“Rory Pond!” The Doctor exclaimed, walking right up to him, grabbing him by the face, and planting a big kiss on him while Amy ran toward him.

“Wha—who are you? Are you my boyfriend? Am I gay?” Rory looked as if he were having an existential crisis. Amy stopped in her tracks. 

“What have they done to you?” Amy asked no one in particular, looking into Rory’s confused face with wide eyes. “Rory, it’s me. It’s Amy,” she said, looking deeply into his eyes for a sign of recognition. He looked at her as if trying to place her. 

“I’m sorry…do I know you?” he asked. “Is my name Rory?” 

The Doctor held his sonic screwdriver in Rory’s face and scrutinized him. Then, he straightened up with a smile and pointed in a new direction. 

“Well, come on then!” He called to the three as he walked in the direction indicated. Amy rolled her eyes and followed him, dragging the naked and confused Rory with her. Alice just followed, knowing that it would be pointless to try asking any of the questions that were running through her head. 

“What is the last thing you remember?” Amy asked Rory, holding him by the arm and walking along with him. He looked confused and his eyes were completely blank. 

“Nothing,” he said. “I don’t remember anything, just waking up in a room and now I’ve just been trying to figure out where I am and how I got here.” 

While Alice was walking behind them, she hated herself a little bit for sneaking a peek at Rory’s bum…he was a married man, after all. Still, she was only human. Amy suddenly remembered he was naked. They walked by a hook on the wall from which was hanging a white lab coat. So it was a laboratory, in fact. Amy grabbed the coat and handed it to Rory. 

“Here, cover yourself up,” she said. 

They continued to walk down the hall silently and finally Alice decided to speak. 

“What exactly are we looking for?” 

“We’re trying to figure out how to fix Rory,” Amy explained. 

The Doctor opened another door with his sonic screwdriver and threw it open dramatically. Behind it was a staircase that went down. 

“That’s not what I was expecting,” he said, as if the staircase were in the wrong place instead of him being wrong. Regardless, he started down the staircase, followed closely by Amy and Rory, and finally by Alice. When they got to the bottom, there was another door, which they opened to find…Rory. He was in a dim, empty room with some wooden boxes along one wall. It looked like a combination of a storage room and a dungeon.

“There you guys are! I was wondering when you were going to get here…what is he doing here?!” he asked, appalled to see them with a Rory that was not him. 

The Rory wearing the lab coat looked more confused than ever, and the Rory wearing the puffy vest looked at Amy as if she had done something wrong. Amy backed away from lab coat Rory and looked between them. 

“Two Rorys?” she said, not quite sure how to handle the situation.

“A clone, of course! Now the question is…is this one the real Rory, or is this one the real Rory with his memory erased, and this one a trap?” 

“I’m not a trap, I’m the real Rory!” Vest Rory insisted. 

“We need to be sure, I don’t like walking into traps without knowing they’re there,” The Doctor said. No matter what he said, he always acted like it made sense, although it usually didn’t. 

“How do we find out which one is the real Rory?” Alice finally asked. To be honest, she just wanted to get the hell out of there. All the talk of clones and traps was unsettling, and she was suddenly aware that she had run off with a bunch of strangers in the middle of the night without so much as grabbing her wallet and keys. Now she had no idea where she was and was in a strange situation. Amy looked between the two Rorys. Lab coat Rory was just looking around confusedly, while vest Rory was looking at her with pleading eyes. 

“I’ll know,” Amy said. She walked over to vest Rory and reached up to run her fingers through his hair. She pushed herself up on her toes and began whispering something intimate in his ear while stroking his hair, and Rory’s eyes looked off into a dreamy daze. His knees buckled slightly and he let out a breath as his eyes closed. Then, suddenly, Amy stepped away and Rory looked like he was about to melt into a puddle on the floor. 

“This is my Rory,” she said matter-of-factly. “Let’s go.” She began stepping toward the doorway while Rory tried to collect himself. 

“Right, then,” The Doctor said. “A clone, with Rory’s DNA but none of his memories…now all we have to do is figure out why they cloned you,” he said, more to himself than anyone else. 

“Well, couldn’t we all just leave, I mean…we have what we came for, don’t we?” Alice asked. Amy and Rory were looking at her as if to say, ‘you’ll learn better soon enough’, and The Doctor was pacing around the room frantically and talking to himself. Rory’s clone sat on a wooden box against the wall, looking completely lost and helpless. Since her suggestion was being ignored, she joined him on the wooden box. 

“Hello. I’m Alice,” she said. 

“I’m…well, I don’t know,” he told her sadly. “I suppose I’m not their Rory.”

“That’s okay, we’re going to find out. That man there…he’s The Doctor, and he’s going to figure this out,” she tried to reassure him. “I think,” she added, trying to convince herself that The Doctor actually knew what he was doing as she watched him pacing around the room awkwardly. Amy and Rory were just watching him, as if waiting for him to come to some epiphany.   
Suddenly, a smoke-like fog like the one that had been in Alice’s room came into the room they were in. It circled around each person in the room, including both Rorys, and finally settled around Alice. She felt as if something had tied her up around the middle and she began to lift into the air. She let out a scream. 

“Who are you?” The Doctor asked. The fog lowered Alice down and then snaked over to The Doctor, stopping inches from his face. 

“We are Sharishta,” a deep, raspy voice came out of the fog. 

“Why do you want these people? Why did you clone him?” He asked, thinking as if he were trying to figure out the answer himself. Then, before the Sharishta could answer, The Doctor smiled excitedly. “Of course! You’re a fog, a cloud, and you want bodies to inhabit.”

“But…I’m a real person,” Rory’s clone said quietly. “I don’t want to be inhabited by that…thing.” Alice put her hand on his arm gently to comfort him. It had to be horrible to discover that you only exist to be a container for another life form. 

“How many people have you cloned so far? How many others are in this laboratory?” The Doctor asked, ignoring him. 

“He is the only human,” the Sharishta said. 

“You’re cloning other beings too? Why?” The Doctor asked. “Oh! To figure out which type of body you want. Sort of an experiment, if you will.” The Sharishta didn’t answer, so The Doctor smiled, assuming he was right. “What are you doing in Seattle, why Seattle?” 

“Because they can hide among the clouds and the fog,” Alice guessed. Amy, Rory, and The Doctor all looked at her as if just noticing she was there. The Doctor looking slightly impressed. Alice was beyond thinking everything was crazy. She was seeing it with her own two eyes and if she didn’t trust her own sanity, she didn’t trust anything. The Sharishta wiggled back to Alice and her mouth opened in a gasp of sudden fear. The Sharishta disappeared into her open mouth, her eyes rolling back into her head for a moment before she looked normal again. She ran her hands over her face, hair, and neck. 

“I can feel!” she said, although it was obviously the Sharishta talking. She smiled and sighed, continuing to run her hands over her body. She stretched, exploring the way the body moved. Suddenly, she turned to the closest person to her, which was Rory’s clone, and grabbed him by the face, kissing him deeply and messing up his hair. His arms flailed from the unexpectedness of it. When she was done, he looked shocked, although not like he was necessarily complaining. 

“Get out of her!” The Doctor shouted. 

“Why would I give this up?” She demanded. “You get to feel every day, you don’t know how it is to be shapeless, to float through space and never touch anything,” the Sharishta hissed through Alice’s voice. 

“Because not all feelings are good!” The Doctor shouted back. He stepped closer to Alice. “I’m sorry about this,” he said, before slapping Alice hard across the face. She turned her head back to face him, eyes wide, rubbing her cheek. “I said get out of her!” he shouted, shaking her firmly. He slapped her a second time. Again, she rubbed her cheek with her hand, this time tears welling up. 

“Stop! You’re hurting her!” Rory’s clone said, taking a step forward. 

A moment later, the fog came out through Alice’s mouth and hovered in the air above The Doctor’s head. Alice held her hand against her face. 

“What happened? My face hurts,” she said. “I also feel a bit…” Alice trailed, swaying for a moment and looking somewhat light-headed.

“It was the only way I could think to get the Sharishta out of you, now run!” The Doctor shouted and took off, Amy, Alice, and the two Rorys following. When they looked over their shoulders, they could see the Sharishta a bit of a way behind them, slowly following. Eventually, they got to the TARDIS and The Doctor, Amy, and Rory ran inside. Rory’s clone stopped and looked at it. He wasn’t the Rory they had come for, and he knew it. He couldn’t go with them – he wasn’t invited. Alice stopped when she saw that he was behind. The Sharishta was gaining on them. 

“Alice, get in! Now!” The Doctor shouted. 

“We can’t just leave him here,” Alice said. The Sharishta was getting closer.

“He’s not our Rory,” The Doctor said, as if she was old friends with Rory and knew him well. 

“But he’s still a human being!” She insisted. The Sharishta was almost to them.

“Bring him along, then, just get in!” 

Alice grabbed him by the arm and ran inside the TARDIS, dragging him with her. The door closed behind them just before the Sharishta could follow them all inside. They bent over to catch their breath and The Doctor started rambling. 

“Well, now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“Doctor…” Rory said. 

“Now all we have to do is save the entire human race from being abducted and cloned,” The Doctor went on, as if this were not a difficult task at all.

“Doctor…”

“How are we going to stop them, they’re a mere wisp of vapor, they could be hiding in any cloud or fog or—”

“DOCTOR!” 

“What is it, Rory?!” The Doctor turned around. “Oh.” There was a woman with auburn hair wearing a green dress over black leggings and boots with a brown satchel slung across her body. She had her arm around Amy’s neck and a gun pointed to her head. Alice and the two Rorys were facing her, their hands up in a surrender position. “Hello…” The Doctor said, taking a moment to process the situation. 

“I’m Captain Anne Forrest and this is my ship now.” 

“Now…hold on…” The Doctor said, holding his hands out in front of him defensively, then smiling at her mischievously. “Do you know how to drive it?” 

“No, but you’re going to drive it, handsome,” she said, pointing the gun at The Doctor and releasing Amy. Even with a gun pointed at him, she looked The Doctor over, clearly liking what she saw. Rory took Amy into his arms and put a hand on the back of her head to comfort her, kissing her forehead tenderly, then stepped in front of her protectively. 

“Well…that was the plan, yes,” The Doctor said. 

“Are you trying to be funny?” Captain Anne asked, eyes narrowing. 

“Was I funny? I didn’t mean to be,” he said. “Now, uh…miss…” he said, carefully making his way to the TARDIS control panel, “Where can I take you?” 

“London. I have business there,” she said with bitterness in her voice. 

The Doctor began flipping switches again, and a moment later, the TARDIS was in motion. Since nobody seemed to be trying to get in her way, Anne stowed her gun away in her holster. 

“You better be taking me in the right direction,” Anne told The Doctor threateningly. 

“We will be in London in just a few minutes,” The Doctor promised. “You know, I would have taken you if you’d told me you wanted to go; holding a gun to my friend’s head, well that was just completely unnecessary.” 

“Attractive AND does what I tell him,” Anne said, “I like that in a man,” she said, scooting closer to him so that her face was close to his. He leaned back uncomfortably and stumbled backward, falling on his back in a mess of flailing limbs. A moment later, he popped back up and continued navigating the TARDIS.


	3. In Which a Rory by Any Other Name is as Sweet

“Thank you for what you did back there,” Rory’s clone said, stepping up next to Alice where she was sitting in the TARDIS. “Not leaving me behind, I mean.” Rory and Amy had wandered off somewhere for some alone time, and Anne was keeping an eye on The Doctor to make sure he stuck to the plan. 

“You’re welcome,” Alice said, smiling at him. 

“I know that I was meant for that…thing,” he said. “You could have just left me there.”

“After having personally experienced that, I don’t recommend it,” Alice joked. “I don’t remember what I did while it inhabited me; all I know is that my face hurt afterward and I was a little dizzy. I just hope I didn’t do anything too embarrassing,” she said with a laugh. 

“Oh, no, not a thing,” he said awkwardly, but Alice could hear in his voice that he was keeping something to himself. 

“Oh gosh, I did, didn’t I? What did I do?” 

“Well, I mean, you kissed me, but it wasn’t really a big deal,” he said quickly, as if shrugging it off. 

“Oh no! Sorry!” Alice said, laughing a bit at the awkwardness of the conversation. 

“No, it’s fine. It wasn’t you, really, was it? Not that it would have been bad if it was, just…” he trailed off uncomfortably. Alice decided it would be best to change the subject. 

“Perhaps we should get you some clothes,” she suggested. She led him to the TARDIS closet and left him to pick something out. When he emerged, he was wearing gray pants with a white button-up shirt covered by a green jumper. 

“Well, that’s better,” Alice said, admiring the look. 

“Now all I need is a name to go with it,” he said. “I can’t very well be Rory, can I? There’s already one of those.”

“It would be less confusing if you had a different name, yes,” Alice said. “What do you want your name to be?” 

“I…I don’t know. What’s a good name?” 

“My favorite name is Nicholas,” Alice said absent-mindedly. Rory’s clone looked thoughtful for a minute, then smiled. “I mean, it’s just a suggestion,” Alice added, not wanting him to feel obligated to take it. 

“Hello, I’m Nicholas,” he said, extending a hand to her, trying out the name. 

“Hello, I’m Alice,” she said, shaking his hand in mock formality. During the rest of the journey, she told him the story of how she had ended up on this adventure with The Doctor and everything she knew about him. She also introduced the clone’s new identity to the rest of the passengers of the TARDIS. Amy and Rory seemed satisfied that Alice had found a way to distinguish him from Rory.


	4. In Which Captains Conflict

The TARDIS doors opened and all passengers stepped foot into London. Alice and Nicholas, who had never been to London before, looked around in awe. Being an American who didn’t know better, Alice stepped into the middle of the street to get a better look around. 

“Alice, look out!” Amy’s voice shouted and Alice turned to see a car quickly coming toward her, honking repeatedly. She was frozen in terror. She closed her eyes, awaiting her fate, when something hit her from the side and tackled her to the ground. She opened her eyes and became breathless as she looked into the face of the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen in person. Blue eyes, black hair, a strong chin, and smile that could melt butter. 

“Hello. Captain Jack Harkness,” he said, smiling at her as if she were the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. “And you are?” 

“Alice Maven,” she said, her mouth curling into a dreamy smile. He climbed off of her and offered her a hand, pulling her up as if she weighed nothing. Alice got to examine him more closely – he was tall, had broad shoulders, and was wearing a blue shirt with white suspenders and a dark blue overcoat. He looked up and saw that he was standing next to the TARDIS. 

“Hi, Captain Jack Harkness,” he said, turning to Amy. She smiled and straightened out her hair. 

“Amy Pond,” she replied. Rory gave her a hurt look. 

“Who are you?” Jack asked Rory flirtatiously, making Rory look uncomfortable. 

“Rory…her husband,” he said pointedly. 

“This must be your brother,” Jack said, giving Nicholas a charming smile. 

“Not exactly,” Rory said, but Jack ignored him and moved on to Anne. 

“Hi—”

“Save it,” Anne said bluntly, clearly not affected by his charm. He raised his eyebrows in surprise – this was not a reaction he was used to getting from women. 

“This one’s not very friendly,” he mumbled to Nicholas, just loudly enough for Anne to hear. 

“You think I’ve never seen a pretty face before?” Anne asked, rolling her eyes. Jack turned to the remaining man and smiled at him.

“Captain Jack!” The Doctor exclaimed excitedly, then grabbed him by the face and gave him a kiss on the mouth. 

“Well, hello to you too, Doctor,” Captain Jack responded, grinning. 

“My turn,” Anne said, grabbing The Doctor by the head and kissing him deeply. His limbs flapped around as her hands ran in his hair, but then his hands finally found her shoulders and he managed to sit still long enough to enjoy the kiss. When she broke away from him, he looked dazed, his hair puffed out in all directions. Captain Jack took a step toward Anne and looked at her expectantly. 

“No,” was all she said. He held his hands up in mock surrender and turned back to The Doctor. 

“So, this is the new look. Love the bow tie, bow ties are cool.” Amy and Rory exchanged a look at this and The Doctor beamed, smiling like a child on Christmas morning.

“Okay! Now…we need to look for the Sharishta before any more people are cloned or inhabited. I think we should split up—”

“Doctor, I believe we had an agreement. I have business to conduct here,” Anne said. 

“Oh – so you do. Amy, Rory, come with me. Alice, Nicholas, have a look around. If you see any suspicious fog, come find me. Captain Jack…go with Anne.” 

“I don’t need some pretty boy slowing me down,” Anne said. 

“It’s for your safety,” The Doctor said. 

“I can take care of myself,” Anne insisted, pulling her gun out of her holster and cocking it. 

“It’s for your safety from the Sharisha,” The Doctor clarified. She had been told about the Sharishta during the journey. Anne just looked at Captain Jack, who was checking out her body and smiling. She rolled her eyes and snorted with contempt. 

“You got a gun?” Anne asked Jack. He pulled one out from under his coat and held it up. “Keep up and stay out of the way,” she said to him before re-holstering her gun and walking away. Captain Jack jogged after her to catch up.


	5. In Which The Doctor Needs to Focus

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory heard a scream. They ran to see what it was. They saw a point at which fog began, although the sun was shining otherwise. People were screaming, some for their friends or family members that were being inhabited by various Sharishta. The people who were inhabited began running their hands over themselves and exploring the movement of the bodies. Occasionally, a Sharishta would leave someone and the person would stumble, hold their head, or faint. 

“Okay, think, think, I’ve got to think,” The Doctor rambled, pacing around absent-mindedly while Amy and Rory stood by and waited for him to come up with some sort of plan. “They want bodies, specifically ones that they can live in, so they’re experimenting on clones of various life forms. Problem is, clones are people too. “The question is: why didn’t they release Rory when they had cloned him? And why didn’t they just experiment on Rory himself?” 

The Doctor suddenly started running off, going in the direction that people were being carried away. Amy and Rory just ran after him. They were used to having to be on their toes around him.


	6. In Which Alice and Nicholas Bond

Alice and Nicholas took a walk around London, exploring the new place for the first time. They were quiet at first, but eventually got to chatting. 

“It’s very strange,” Nicholas said, breaking the semi-awkward silence. 

“What is?” Alice asked. 

“That I was meant to be an experimental vessel for a cloud,” he said. “That I might never have had a name or a life of my own. I suppose that means that you saved my life, in a way.” 

“You make it sound much more heroic than it was,” Alice said modestly, blushing slightly. 

“It was to me,” he said honestly. “The others were just going to leave me behind. You thought of me when you could have just gotten yourself out of there. It was brave,” he said. 

“I guess I didn’t think of it that way,” she said, embarrassed by the praise. “The Sharishta almost took me away instead of Rory. Then it was in me, and I wasn’t there any more at all. I couldn’t just let that happen to someone else.” 

“You seem to be the only one who considers me a real person.”

“Well, you have human DNA, don’t you? Rory’s DNA, to be specific. Just because you have the same DNA as someone else doesn’t mean you aren’t a separate person.” 

“Thank you,” he said, giving her a grin. 

“Nicholas?” He glanced at her, seeing the sudden fear on her face. “Look around us.” He looked around and suddenly became aware, as she probably just did, that the sky had become cloudy and they were surrounded by fog. They were the only two people in sight. Neither of them could tell how much, if any, of the mist was Sharishta. 

“Nicholas,” she whispered. “Be careful.” That’s the last thing she remembered for a moment, as a Sharishta came out of the fog and wiggled into her mouth. 

“No, leave her alone,” Nicholas said, trying to figure out what to do. “I know that you want to be able to feel things, but…but you might feel pain, too. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, really,” he said awkwardly, but was ignored as the Sharishta stretched and moved and felt its new body. He was trying to convince the Sharishta that it wasn’t worth being inside of Alice. When he saw that it wasn’t working, he began to panic. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said to Alice, who couldn’t hear him. “Doctor!” he began to shout, hoping The Doctor was nearby. “Doctor!” There was no answer. “Come along,” he told Alice grabbing her by the arm to lead her away, “let’s go find The Doctor.”

“No,” the Sharishta said through Alice’s voice. “This is my body now, I must go and help.” 

“Help who?” 

“The Sharishta help each other,” Alice’s voice said. 

“No, I don’t think so, come with me, we’re going to find The Doctor,” he said, as if it were a child that just needed to be told no. 

“I am going to help the Sharishta,” it said again, struggling to get out of his grasp. He tightened his hold on her arm, wrestling with her as she tried to get away. 

“Come on, we’re – you’re a lot stronger than you look, you know that?” he said as he struggled to drag her along with him. Finally, he picked her up and began to carry her away while she kicked and pushed against him, trying to free herself.


	7. In Which Captain Anne Gets Sweet Revenge

Captain Jack was walking alongside Anne, who strode deliberately, clearly on a mission. 

“So, what exactly is this business you have here?” Jack asked, trying to make conversation. 

“Nothing you need to know about,” she said. Jack ignored this brush-off and tried again to make small talk. 

“So, how’d you end up on the blue box?” 

“I went inside while they were gone, and when they came back, I took over,” she said. 

“How did you get inside? The Doctor keeps her locked up, he’s very protective of the TARDIS,” Jack said, clearly baffled as to how anyone would be able to get inside if The Doctor didn’t want them there. Anne pulled a small circular device out of her pocket. 

“This can unlock just about anything,” she said, showing it to him. 

“Hey, I made that! Where did you get it?” he demanded. 

“Stole it,” Anne said nonchalantly before pocketing it again. 

“Of course you did. So what are you, a pirate?” 

“Something like that.” She stopped in front of a small, seedy pub and turned to him. “Keep quiet and stay out of my way,” she instructed before opening the door and going inside. He followed her in and watched her look around, eyes narrowed. When she saw what she was looking for, she walked forward purposefully. Jack followed. Anne stopped when she was standing behind a blond man who was sitting alone with a mug of beer. She pulled out her gun, putting it up against the middle of the guy’s back. She whispered in his ear from behind. 

“Keep your mouth shut and come with me or I pull the trigger. If you so much as reach for your gun, you’ll be dead before you can blink.” 

The guy stood up and she pushed him forward with the gun, leading him outside. He tried to say something but she shoved the gun harder into his back, making him close his mouth and raise his arms in surrender. Anne looked at Jack. 

“Take his gun,” she instructed. Jack stepped forward and got a good look at the guy’s face. He was handsome with golden hair and green eyes. Jack gave him a smile and flirtatious nod. “I said take his gun,” Anne snapped, and Jack pulled the man’s coat aside and pulled his gun off of his belt, then handed it to Anne, who shoved it in her satchel. “Keep walking,” Anne told the guy, and the three walked through a crowd unnoticed. She came to a tavern and pushed the guy inside, Jack following. As they walked past the bar, Anne nodded to the bartender. 

“Robert,” she acknowledged.

“Good to see you, Captain Anne,” he replied. She walked past and pushed the blond into an empty room. Jack closed the door behind them. Anne pushed the guy into a chair and pulled a rope out of her satchel, throwing it to Jack. 

“Tie him up,” she told Jack. Without questioning, he wrapped the rope around the man’s torso and the back of the chair several times, tying him tightly. 

“Captain Anne Forrest,” the blond finally said. “You’re looking lovelier than ever. Is this your new man?” he asked, directing toward Jack with his head. He turned and looked at Jack sympathetically. “She wasn’t great in the sack, but she’s…matured since the last time I saw her,” he said cockily, his eyes running over Anne’s body. He was trying to get to her. Jack shrugged at the guy as if to say, ‘I wouldn’t know, but I wouldn’t mind finding out.’ Anne clenched her jaw and stuck her gun against the blond guy’s forehead. 

“Woah, hold on a minute,” Jack said, unable to keep his mouth shut. “Is this guy your ex?” 

“This guy blew up my ship with my crew inside,” Anne said bitterly. 

“Come on now, Anne,” the blond said sweetly, “you’re not trying to pretend there wasn’t more between us than that,” he flirted. 

“Save it, Pete,” Anne said. “All I need to hear from you is where your ship is.”

“I don’t have one,” he said, the flirtatious tone of his voice dropping as he spoke more seriously. “Just like you, my ship was destroyed and my crew killed.” 

“I don’t believe you,” Anne said through gritted teeth, her eyes narrowing. 

“It’s the truth,” he told her. “A man named Elijah. He took everything. I was going to go after him when you came after me,” he said. Anne glared at him suspiciously, but he could tell she was hesitating. She lowered her gun. “We could go after him together,” he said in a coaxing voice. “We made a great team, back in the day. I even thought maybe you loved me.” 

Anne’s eyes softened, and she leaned closer to him, looking into his green eyes. 

“We could take over his ship together, be co-captains,” he continued in a smooth, silky voice. “You and me, Anne and Pete again.” 

“You and me?” Anne asked softly, her eyes widening innocently. 

“You and me,” he whispered in a low, sexy growl. Anne looked hesitant and confused for a moment, slowly leaning toward him as if she couldn’t stop herself. Her lips met his and they both exhaled, kissing passionately. Anne sighed as his tongue slid into her mouth and she put a hand on the back of his neck, her arm with the gun draping over his shoulders. He had enough movement left in his arms beneath the rope to move his hands to her hips, running his hands along the curves. Eventually, they broke the kiss and Anne smiled dreamily at him.   
“Wow,” he smirked seductively at her, “you have matured.” With that, Anne raised the hand with the gun above his head and knocked him out cold. 

“You may think I’m still the fool I used to be, but don’t you ever think I didn’t love you, you bastard,” she snarled at his unconscious body. She reached into Pete’s pocket and took his wallet, glad to see there was a decent amount of cash inside. She also took his cell phone, thinking she could either use it for something or sell it. Not finding much else of value on him, she looked at Jack and gestured toward the door with her head, indicating for him to follow. Finally, he said something about everything he had just witnessed. 

“So, does everybody get a kiss except me, or—”

“Shut up.”


	8. In Which Amy is Reassured of Rory's Love But Not of Her Safety

The Doctor had come across a door in the back of a nondescript building and opened it with his sonic screwdriver. Amy and Rory followed him inside and held onto each other for protection as they wandered through a dim hallway. They could hear screams as people were abducted and brought into the building somewhere. 

“Doctor…” Amy said, fear in her voice, “are we going to be alright?” 

“Of course, my Amelia Pond!” They wandered through the hall, trying to find the Sharishta. “Have I ever let you fall into danger?”

“There was the time I had to have my eyes closed and walk among the Weeping Angels, the day you enrolled me in a school full of vampiric water creatures, I was locked in a cupboard and turned into an evil doll,” she said, ticking them off on her fingers. “Hitler is the least dangerous thing I’ve encountered since I met you. Should I continue?”

“Well…right. But you’re still here! See! You’ll be fine. Come along, Pond!” 

Amy gave him a look that indicated that she didn’t quite buy it. However, she did trust The Doctor and Rory completely, and would die for either one of them. She and Rory followed The Doctor hand-in-hand. They went around a few hallways and through a few doors that were opened with the whirr of the sonic screwdriver. 

They entered a room that looked like a laboratory. It had a bed with straps on it in the middle and various surgical tools. Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind them. They saw a Sharishta floating around the room. Rory opened his mouth to ask The Doctor if they had a plan when the Sharishta went inside of him. 

“Get out of my husband, you psychotic wisp!” Amy shouted. 

“Why do you want to clone people?” The Doctor demanded. Rory’s voice spoke the Sharishta’s answer. 

“We must find the best form,” was its explanation. 

“You want to experiment with different types of bodies? Why didn’t you just experiment with Rory?” The Doctor asked. 

“Because I could feel it. He missed her,” the Sharishta explained through Rory.

“Who?”

“Her. Amy. The one with red hair,” it pointed to Amy. “It was painful,” Rory’s voice explained. “She is here now, it is not painful.” Amy’s eyes widened a bit as she felt a combination of sympathy for the Sharishta and love for her husband.

“The memory of Amy was painful while you were inside of Rory?” The Doctor said. “So you made a clone, so that it would have no memories, so that you could find a good life form to inhabit.” 

“We do not want to destroy lives,” Rory’s voice said. “Our planet is insufficient.” 

“Insufficient…how?” 

“It does not have enough food,” it said. 

“What do you feed on?” The Doctor asked, looking as if he were trying to figure it out himself instead of like he was waiting for an answer. He got no answer.


	9. In Which Sharishta are Extracted in Two Different Ways

Nicholas had managed to drag Alice in the direction that The Doctor had pointed in when they had split up. He found a commotion around a nondescript building with a metal door, and something told him that he should go inside. He brought the possessed Alice in, who was admittedly less resistant now that the Sharishta were near. Nicholas hoped that this was where The Doctor was – otherwise, he was screwed. 

He pulled her along hallways, continually getting lost and finding dead-ends. He had no idea where to go, and he wanted to get her to The Doctor. Maybe The Doctor would hit her again to get the Sharishta out. He couldn’t bring himself to hit her on his own. 

“The Doctor’s going to help you, Alice,” he said comfortingly, although she still couldn’t hear him. He wandered around, trying to figure out where to go in the large building. Alice just followed him as if in a trance.

Finally, he opened a door and saw a laboratory. The Doctor was pacing around frantically, thinking out loud to himself. Rory was obviously inhabited by a Sharishta and was moving around strangely. Amy was just trying to get The Doctor’s attention for help. 

“Doctor, I need your help,” Nicholas said, walking up to him. The Doctor continued muttering to himself. 

Nicholas and Amy both continued to try to get his attention, but he was too lost in his own mind. Nicholas realized that he would have to take some sort of action himself. He went over to the bed and looked into Rory’s face – his own face. It was a little strange, but they needed as many people as possible to have their wits about them. 

“Sorry, mate,” he said before punching Rory square in the jaw. “Well, that was weird,” he said. The Sharishta came out of Rory with a groan of pain and flew out of the room, and Rory rubbed his jaw. He also had a bit of a headache, but not from the punch. 

“I’ll explain later,” Nicholas said, then turned his attention to The Doctor. Amy, remembering what the Sharishta had said about Rory missing her, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him lovingly and passionately. When she broke it, he looked slightly confused, not sure what he had done to deserve it, but certainly not complaining. 

“Doctor, we have to help Alice! I…I need you to slap her, I can’t do it myself, she’s a girl, and she’s done a lot for me, and she’s…well, she’s quite pretty, really,” he said. Being ignored, he turned to Alice. “Hey, uh…you! Sharishta!…take me instead. It’s what I was meant for,” he said, then put one hand on Alice’s arm and the other on the back of her neck and pressed his mouth to hers. He parted both of their lips and felt the Sharishta transfer from her to him. 

Alice held a hand to her head. She had a major headache, and she felt a bit disoriented and slightly nauseous. She looked around the room for a moment, then collapsed, unconscious.


	10. In Which Histories are Exchanged Between Captains

Captain Jack glanced at Anne as they walked back toward the TARDIS. 

“So…what happened with that guy, anyway?” he asked casually.

“I was young and stupid. The captain of the ship I was on got shot, and I had been promoted. I met the captain of another ship, and he charmed and manipulated me. He got my trust. I fell in love. Before I knew it, he stole everything I had and blew up my ship with my crew inside, and left. That’s when I learned not to trust a handsome face,” Anne said. 

“How’d you get into piracy?” 

“My mother died in childbirth, and dad was killed working in a coal mine. The mine collapsed. I was eight,” her usually rough voice softened from the sadness of the memory. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said sincerely. 

“I was on a plane to go to an orphanage when it started going down. There weren’t enough parachutes. Some people escaped, some went down with the plane. I was standing in the doorway of the plane, parachute on my back, too scared to jump, when a space ship flew up next to us. Everybody was frightened. The captain of the space ship rescued me. They told me that I wouldn’t have to go to the orphanage if I did what they told me. I started stealing, little jobs at first. Turns out I was good at it – I was small and innocent-looking. Captain Jude taught me everything – how to shoot a gun, most efficient way to tie someone up, how to be deceptive. When he was shot, he passed the ship on to me with his dying breath. All I managed to do was get it blown up for a few kisses and some green eyes.” 

“So now you’re trying to make up for it by going after the guy who blew it up,” Jack guessed. “Why didn’t you kill him?”

“Wouldn’t do any good if he doesn’t have a ship,” Anne shrugged, but Jack had the feeling that it wasn’t the whole story. She couldn’t do it – seeing him again had been too much. “So what’s your story, Casanova?” Anne asked, changing the subject. 

“I started out my career as a Time Agent – time travelling to accomplish various missions. When I left the Agency, I became a con artist. I got people to buy items that were then destroyed before the person could see it,” he began to explain his history. “I met The Doctor during the London Blitz in World War II. I rescued the girl he was travelling with at the time and tried to sell them some junk I’d found. I travelled with them for a while. Ended up on a satellite defending the Earth from an alien attack and I died. The Doctor’s companion resurrected me with the power of the Time Vortex. I haven’t been able to die since.” 

“Are you trying to tell me you’re immortal?” 

“Ever since I was resurrected, I haven’t been able to die. It’s not just that I’m lucky. Shot through the heart, falling off a cliff, poisoned, a javelin – nothing killed me. The Torchwood Institute recruited me after trying to find out why I couldn’t die.”

“What’s the Torchwood Institute?” 

“It’s an organization that protects the Earth from alien threats,” he told her. 

“So these alien fog clouds or whatever are of personal interest to you,” Anne surmised. 

“Oh yeah,” he confirmed. “They’re most definitely of interest to me.” 

“I guess we should try to find The Doctor, then, and help however we can,” Anne said cheerfully. 

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with you trying to prove yourself more, does it?” Jack asked smugly, clearly having figured out her motivation for helping. “You want to show that you’re not worthless?”

“Just returning a favor. You helped me with Pete, I’ll help you with your aliens,” she said gruffly. Jack smiled to himself as she strode forward purposefully and he trailed behind.


	11. In Which Food is Discussed

“Doctor!”

“Yes, what is it Rory?” 

“Oh, of course, now he pays attention,” Amy said in frustration. 

“There is a Sharishta inside of Nicholas,” Rory said calmly. “And Alice fainted, and I’m feeling a bit dizzy…” 

“Oh, is that all?” The Doctor said. “I’m sorry about this, Nicky boy,” he added, then grabbed Nicholas by the shoulders and shoved his knee into the clone’s groin. He keeled over and let out a cry of agony, the Sharishta leaving his mouth and flying out of the room. Nicholas looked at The Doctor whimpering in pain, his hands over the front of his pants. 

“Why? Why did you do that to me? Why would someone do that?” 

“It got the Sharishta out of you,” The Doctor said cheerfully, slapping Nicholas on the back. 

“What happened to Alice?” Nicholas asked. 

“I don’t know,” Amy responded. “When the Sharishta left her, she just fell down.” 

“Okay, so. Is everyone themselves? No Sharishta anywhere?” They all looked at each other, trying to figure out if there was a problem. “Right, then. Geronimo!” The Doctor ran out of the room, Amy and Rory running after him. Nicholas scooped up Alice and carried her along. 

“Wait for me!” he shouted. 

“Doctor, we don’t know what we’re doing,” Amy reminded him. 

“I’ve figured it out, I told you I would, didn’t I tell you I would?” Everybody looked at him in surprise, and he smiled as if they were children that had gathered around him, waiting to be told a story. “The Sharishta want to find a form to inhabit, so they’re experimenting with various living creatures. However, they experience the person’s feelings and memories and the pain associated with them. They’re conducting these experiments on Earth because it has a good food supply for them. What does Earth have a lot of?”

They all stared at him blankly. 

“Water?” Rory guessed. 

“YES! And specifically salt water. The Sharishta, they live off of salt. The reason Alice is unconscious is because she doesn’t have enough salt, the Sharishta ate it out of her body.”   
“How do they eat it? They’re just clouds,” Amy said, although everyone who had been touched by one knew that they felt much more solid than that. 

“They absorb it,” he said. “Or, if they inhabit humans, they have a double advantage – they can eat it out of the person, and they can eat salt through the human’s mouth.” The Doctor explained all of this as if it were factual, not just a guess, and as if it were completely reasonable besides. 

“Am I the only one that thinks this plan of theirs is a bit convoluted?” Nicholas asked in disbelief. “The whole thing seems kind of ridiculous.”

“You get used to ridiculous around here,” Amy informed him. 

“I’ve been alive for nine hours and I’ve already kissed a girl twice, travelled with an alien in a blue police box, and been invaded by a cloud monster that created me so that it could eat some salt,” Nicholas said, drawing attention to the hilarity of the situation. The other three looked at him as if none of this were out of the ordinary.

The Doctor opened another door and they found themselves on the roof of the building. It was covered in fog.


	12. In Which Memories are Painful

Captains Jack and Anne arrived at the building and ran around it, trying to find the best way inside. Suddenly, Captain Jack looked up and saw The Doctor and everyone else on the roof of the building in a thick fog.

“Come on, we have to get up to the roof,” he said, starting toward the closest door. 

“Feel free to take the stairs, you need the exercise anyway,” Anne said smugly. 

“Is there another option?” Jack asked, then realized what she’d said. A smirk crossed his face. “You were checking out my body, weren’t you?” 

“That’s what you focused on?” He just smiled that grin that could stop traffic. “You’re welcome to take the slow way up, but I have a better idea,” Anne challenged as she pulled out a grappling hook and shot it toward the roof. The hook caught onto the guardrail. “You coming, dollface?” 

Jack smiled at her resourcefulness and her snark and he put his hand over hers on the launcher. 

“Where did you get this thing, anyway?” She opened her mouth to answer, but he beat her to it. “Let me guess – you stole it.” 

“And lucky for you I did, or you’d be dragging your ass up 20 flights of stairs.”

“Fair point,” he said with a smirk as she released them and they shot up to the roof. 

“Captain Jack! Captain Anne!” The Doctor exclaimed, excited to see them. “So nice to see you! Okay, now,” he said turning his backs to them. “Sharishta, you clever things, finding a salty planet!”

“We must find the best form,” a Sharishta said. Then, it inhabited Captain Jack. 

It took only a moment for the effect to take place. Being left stranded. Being alive for hundreds of years, never dying. Going through pain, torture, anguish, loss, and staying alive through it all. Thousands of horrible memories, so much suffering. Tears ran down Jack’s face involuntarily as the Sharishta felt the pain of Jack’s memories. He took a couple of steps back, right to the edge of the building. Then the Sharishta, unable to bear it any longer, left Jack. 

The salt deprivation made Jack waver for a moment, and he tried to plant his feet more firmly on the rooftop, but his foot slipped and he began to fall off the roof. He managed to catch onto the ledge, and only a second later, Anne’s face was above his. 

“Jack! Grab my hand!” she held her hand out. He looked at her unsure – grabbing her hand would mean letting go of the ledge. Finally, she grabbed him by the wrist and managed to help pull him up enough that he could push himself back up onto the rooftop. He stood bent over for a minute, catching his breath from the stress of the situation. The other members of the group had rushed to the edge of the building when he fell, and were gathered around to help him if he needed it. When it seemed like he was okay, they went back to trying to figure out how to deal with the Sharishta. 

“Thanks for that,” Jack finally said to Anne, who had a hand on his back to stabilize him after a shaky experience. Anne just looked at him, relief in her eyes that she couldn’t hide, before she answered him. 

“Aw, what the hell,” she said before grabbing him by the face and pressing her lips to his. It was a brief kiss, but effective. He had just managed to get his hands to her sides before she broke the kiss and took a step back. “Come on pretty boy, there’s work to be done,” she said before joining the rest of the group, leaving Jack to follow a moment after with a grin he couldn’t wipe off his face. 

“There’s a form here you haven’t tried yet,” The Doctor shouted at the Sharishta. “I’m not human. I’m a Time Lord,” he said, almost smugly.   
With that, the Sharishta slowly inhabited The Doctor. 

The memories were even worse than they had been in Captain Jack. So much loss. Companions lost, one after another, growing to love and care about someone over and over, only to have them eventually leave. However, there were two memories that stood out above all the others. The first, a war between The Daleks and the Time Lords – a war that ended with The Doctor being left alone, believing to have been the only survivor of his race. The second was a beautiful blonde woman, left sobbing on the beach. 

Tears streamed down The Doctor’s face as the Sharishta experienced memory after memory, every person The Doctor has cared about and has loved being taken from him, one way or another. He even lost himself multiple times, getting a new body every time he had been killed, starting all over again. 

The Sharishta came out of The Doctor in a scream. 

The Doctor caught his breath and addressed the Sharishta again. “You do not want to feel the things I’ve felt. I have lost things you can’t imagine.”  
“If we do not have food, we will die,” the Sharishta said, sadness in its voice. 

“Well, don’t pout, you silly things! I’ve already thought of that!” The Doctor shouted cheerfully. Everyone looked at him in surprise. The Doctor was many things, but predictable was not one of them.


	13. In Which Alice is Cared For

Everybody was on the TARDIS. The Doctor, Amy, Rory, Anne, Jack, and the Sharishta. Nicholas had carried the still unconscious Alice with them the whole way. He didn’t entirely know why he was so protective of her, or why he felt such an attachment to her, but all he wanted to do was keep her safe and get her better. He had been shown to a bedroom on the TARDIS. It was nothing fancy – a bed with blue blankets and a white nightstand with a lamp. Nicholas had placed Alice on the bed to make her more comfortable until he could get her better. The Sharishta were on the TARDIS, but this room was cloud-free. 

Amy came in and handed him a large glass of water. 

“Salt water,” she explained. “I made it in the TARDIS kitchen. Lord, you look just like him,” she added, unable to handle the fact that this man who was clearly not Rory was so much like her husband. It was a bit weird. 

“This thing has a kitchen too?” 

“Of course!” Amy said as if this were not surprising. “Try to get her to swallow some. She needs salt,” she added before leaving. 

Nicholas poured the entire glass of salt water into Alice’s throat, little by little. Finally, she opened her eyes. Nicholas sighed in relief. 

“What happened? Where am I?” Alice panicked, since the last thing she remembered was being in the middle of a London fog. 

“We’re on the TARDIS. The Doctor has made some sort of agreement with the Sharishta, although he hasn’t told any of us the plan. They’re on the TARDIS with us, but I don’t think they’re going to cause more trouble. All the same, they seem to like you, so perhaps it would be best if you stayed in here for a while.”

“Why do they like me so much?” she asked. 

“I have no idea,” Nicholas said honestly. 

“How did I get here, if I was unconscious?” 

“Well, I sort of…carried you,” Nicholas said, embarrassed. 

“You carried me all that way?” 

“You didn’t leave me behind, so how could I leave you behind?” She smiled, touched by this.

He then explained to her everything that happened while she was unconscious, and about how she had passed out because the Sharishta ate salt from her body. So, that’s why they liked her so much.

“I guess I should stop eating so many salty snacks,” Alice joked.


	14. In Which the Sharishta Get a New Start

The Doctor opened the TARDIS door and everybody piled out. All of the Sharishta also came out of the TARDIS. Almost immediately, the Sharishta dispersed. 

“Doctor,” Alice asked, “where are we?” 

“Salreen,” The Doctor said. When everyone looked at him blankly, he continued. “It is a planet with no life, but it is made almost entirely of salt mines,” he said proudly. It was pretty clever of him to have thought of it. A Sharishta happily circled The Doctor, wrapping around his body. He laughed. 

“I can feel you,” the Sharishta’s voice said in disbelief. 

“Oh, I forgot to mention that, it slipped right out of my head,” The Doctor said. “The gravity here is a bit different – you’re more dense on Salreen.” 

The group watched as the Sharishta happily inhabited their new home, before The Doctor turned to go back into the TARDIS. 

“Come along, Ponds!” he said to the group as a whole. 

“Um, we’re not Ponds,” Alice said awkwardly. 

“Sure you are!” he said. 

“Everyone’s a Pond on the TARDIS,” Amy said proudly. 

“Now, where to next?” The Doctor began to say excitedly. “I suppose I’d better drop you off at Torchwood, Captain Jack, but after that—”

“Doctor?” Alice said hesitantly. 

“Yes, Alice?” 

“This has been the greatest adventure of my life, but…I think it’s a bit much for me,” she said sheepishly. 

The Doctor looked slightly hurt, a bit disappointed. However, he also had understanding in his eyes. 

“Do you want to go home, then?” he asked. Alice thought for a minute. She had nothing at home. No job. No boyfriend. And her parents had died in a car crash when she was in college, so she didn’t really have a family either. 

“No. Could you take me…somewhere where I can start new?” 

“Me too,” Nicholas said. “This has been an interesting start of my life but…I suppose I’d like to start something new. Become someone, you know?” 

Captain Jack had an idea and whispered in The Doctor’s ear. The Doctor beamed at him. A moment later, he was flipping switches all over the TARDIS control panel.


	15. In Which a Force is Irresistible

Captain Jack found Captain Anne in the TARDIS library. She was sitting on a couch, reading a book on lock picking. When he entered, she looked up to see him, her face unreadable. She closed the book and set it aside. 

“Is there something I can do for you?” she asked sassily. 

“I wanted to thank you again for helping me when I was on the rooftop,” he said sincerely, sitting down next to her. 

“I told you not to mention it,” she replied casually. 

“Does this mean you like me?” he smirked. 

“Don’t flatter yourself, blue eyes. I just didn’t think it would be right to let you die.” 

“I can’t die,” he reminded her. Damn. She was hoping he wouldn’t mention that small detail. She didn’t say anything, just picked up her book and pretended to be reading it so that he’d go away. However, Jack was having none of that. 

“You totally like me,” he said. “You think I’m cute, don’t you? I think you’re cute,” he teased. “You can admit that you like me now—” he continued, but was cut off when Anne gently tossed her book aside and grabbed him by his suspenders, pulling his mouth down to hers. He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her closer as the kiss deepened, and her hands ran up his chest and into his black hair. 

Jack had seen her kiss both The Doctor and Pete, but her kiss with him was different than those had been. With The Doctor it had been for fun and with Pete it had been manipulation. This kiss had conflicting feelings behind it. She liked him, but was afraid to like him. She wanted to pull him close, but push him away. It was as if she couldn’t stop herself; she didn’t want to care about him or trust him that much, but she couldn’t have been doing anything else in that moment but kissing him. 

When they were both breathless, they finally broke apart. 

“Wow,” he almost whispered, his voice a bit raspy. 

“I shouldn’t trust you,” Anne said in a moment of vulnerability, letting her guard down a little bit and allowing her scared side show through. “But I don’t have a space ship for you to blow up.”

“I wouldn’t so much as scratch a ship on which you were Captain,” Captain Jack said honestly.

“Is that a promise?” she asked, mischief gleaming in her eyes. 

“You bet. I’ve seen what happens to people who get on your bad side,” he replied with equal snark. Then he put his hand on the back of her head and captured her mouth in another passionate kiss.


	16. In Which Alice and Nicholas Get a New Start

With Captain Jack’s help with some Torchwood technology, The Doctor managed to land on the beach in the parallel world. 

“Alice, Nicholas, this is your stop,” The Doctor said cheerfully, although a pang of sadness was behind his voice. “It should be just like where you’re from, Alice, except…not…” he explained. 

Alice and Nicholas looked at him blankly. Everyone stepped outside and exchanged hugs and goodbyes. There were teary eyes all around, but Alice was glad she could start over with life, and wouldn’t have traded the experience for the world. 

After a few minutes and the most wonderful sound in the world, the TARDIS disappeared. Alice and Nicholas exchanged an uncomfortable silence and began walking together down the beach.   
“So, what are you going to do now that you’re here?” he asked, very politely. Almost too politely for Alice’s taste, after everything they’d been through together. 

“Oh, I don’t even know. Try to get a job, I guess. Get an apartment. Start a new life. You?” 

“Same, pretty much,” he replied. They looked at each other awkwardly. The silence grew between them as they continued. There were no people in sight, and Alice was glad she was wearing a sweater dress since it was a bit chilly as wind came over the splashing waves. Finally, Nicholas broke the silence. 

“I don’t suppose…” he paused, “that once you get settled here and everything, you’d possibly want to come out for a drink with me sometime?” 

Alice reacted in the worst possible way – she laughed. She couldn’t help it. The whole thing was just so ridiculous, after everything they’d been through together. They’d already kissed and she’d seen him naked, for crying out loud. Not to mention the fact that he took care of her while she was unconscious and she had named him. She felt like they had known each other for years and already had an attachment and cared about each other. Nicholas’s face fell – she was laughing at him. Not the best reaction to get when you ask a girl on a date. He blushed, feeling completely humiliated, when the laughing stopped quite suddenly, and Alice went up on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. 

He slid his hands around her waist – the third kiss between them, but the first that they could both be conscious for. She kissed him sweetly, slowly, the first of many. He kissed her back as if it was all he had ever known and all he really wanted to know. When she finally backed her face away from his, his lips clung to hers as if reaching out for them to come back. 

He rested his forehead on hers, them both breathing heavily from the surprise of what had just happened. They both knew in that moment that their relationship could never have started in a “normal” way. Not with The Doctor involved. But that didn’t matter - it felt right to them all the same. 

“So…” he finally whispered, “that’s a yes, then?” 

“That’s definitely a yes,” she whispered back. His hands moved to her face and he kissed her again, knowing that even though they had yet to go on their first date, they had a long road of many kisses ahead of them.


	17. In Which Captain Anne Gets a New Start

The TARDIS stopped and Anne and Jack were nowhere to be found. 

“Jack! We’re here!” 

A moment later, Anne and Jack both emerged from God knows where on the TARDIS. Both of them had ruffled hair, and Anne casually tried to smooth hers out, as well as adjusting her dress. Amy raised an amused eyebrow when she noticed that Anne’s dress was on backwards. Captain Jack was buttoning up a slightly wrinkled shirt when he came out, and Amy and Rory exchanged a knowing look. The Doctor was oblivious. 

“Here we are,” The Doctor said. “Torchwood!” 

Anne and Jack stepped out and exchanged more hugs, goodbyes, and tears. 

“Are you sure there’s a place for me here?” Anne asked uncomfortably. She wasn’t sure she knew how to do an honest job – she’d been a pirate her entire life.   
“We could really use someone like you here,” Jack promised affectionately, then placed a gentle, reassuring kiss on her lips. 

The Doctor smiled and turned to head back into the TARDIS. 

“Come along, Ponds!” he said, before Amy and Rory followed him in and the blue box disappeared onto another adventure.


End file.
